THE body of the secret former husband of a British woman gunned down with her family in the Alps could be exhumed to find if he too was murdered on the same day.
Mr Thompson, 60, officially died of a suspected heart attack on September 5, 2012, the same day Saad Al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Iqbal, 47, her mother and a French cyclist were gunned down in the Alps.
Police and the FBI were called in after it emerged that former oil worker Mr Thompson had secretly been married to Iqbal between February 1999 and December 2000.
His death on the day the Al-Hillis, from Claygate, Surrey, were killed some five thousand miles away in France has divided his family.
Some are calling it a coincidence while others are starting to harbour growing suspicions that he too could have been murdered.
The FBI is understood to have contacted the family and offered to exhume his body – but so far the offer has been declined.
One family friend said: “The family didn’t want him brought up because they were satisfied that he died of a heart attack, and that remains the case.
There has been some stuff flying around about him being poisoned but the family wants to make it clear they don’t think that.
People had said something about poison, that this was not a heart attack
“They know what happened and, as far as they’re concerned, he died of a heart attack. It’s just a coincidence.”
However, not all family members accept he died of a heart-attack.
His daughter, Joy Martinolich, said that after Mrs Al-Hilli’s death, her aunt and her brother believed that sinister forces may have been at play.
Miss Martinolich said: “If you wanted to kill somebody and get away with it you would do something that people would accept like a heart attack.
“They would accept he was a bit overweight, that he had stress issues, he was pushing 60. It’s possible.”
She added: “My aunt said, in the middle of her grief, that someone had said something about a dart...She thought a couple of people had said something about poison, that this was not a heart attack.”
The murder of the Al-Hilli family remain unsolved [JONATHAN BUCKMASTER]Mr Thompson met Iqbal in 1999 through a relative from Iraq who married into the Thompson family. He agreed to marry her so she could get a green card and citizenship. The marriage ended in 2000.
The savage murders of Mr Al-Hilli, Iqbal, her mother Suhaila Al Allaf, 74, and a French cyclist, Sylvain Mollier, 45, shocked the world and remains unsolved.
The Al-Hillis’ daughters, Zainab, seven at the time, and Zeena, four, survived the attack which saw the family car riddled with bullets. They are in the care of surviving family members in England.
French police were dumbfounded to learn that Iqbal had previously secretly been married to Mr Thompson.
They are now believed to be liaising with their US counterparts. An Iraqi suspected contract killer was recently arrested in connection with the murders, but later released without charge after giving an alibi.
There have also been claims that Mr Al-Hilli was involved in a dispute over a family inheritance with his brother Zaid Al-Hilli, 54, of Chessington, Surrey. He was last year arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder but released in the absence of any evidence.
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